Senator

The Democratic race for Senator in Georgia continues to underwhelm. I have a very deep and personal grudge against one of the candidates (Dale! Cardwell) and I had thought I'd wind up voting Democrat just to vote against him in the primary. The primary is only about a month away and I thought it might be useful to look at the sorry lot of losers who constitute the candidate pool this year.

First we have Vernon (I need a bodyguard) Jones. He's the CEO of my home county (DeKalb) and has never met a spending program he couldn't shift to one of his close, personal friends. He is supposed to be affordable as corrupt officials go, so that's something. Conventional wisdom is that he will get the nod.

Second is Dale! (sanctimonious douchebag) Cardwell. Dale! has received so little support that he is hiding out on top of an abandoned tower in downtown Atlanta. No, I'm not making that up. He's a former alleged investigative reporter with Channel 2 here. As such he was an employee of one of the larger US media conglomerates (Cox Communications). Dale!'s platform is that he won't be beholden to anyone. Either he's lying about that and has the Cox empire behind him, or he's a total tool who successfully managed to piss off his bosses and coworkers.

Third is Rand Knight. Dr Knight is a whitebread technocrat. Boring speaker, colourless past and a lack of achievement have evidently qualified this ex-basket weaver for the Senate.

Josh Lanier is running for the geezer vote. He may have been a success as a businessman, but he has zero political experience, unless you count briefly being a lobbyist and helping to manage the Presidential yacht as political experience.

And lastly we have Maggie Martinez, for whom English is apparently a second language. Normally that's no bar to election in Georgia, but she speaks Spanish as her primary, instead of Talmadge, so that's probably a bit of a hindrance to her being elected.

Happily, everyone of them gets slaughtered by the Republican incumbent in all the polls, so even if Dale! wins the primary, which the polls show him losing, I can still vote against him in the general election. Dem. party insiders are on record off-the-record as conceding the seat to Saxby Chambliss.

Which is a relief, because I still don't know who I like for President. I'm hoping New Hampshire will bring some clarity on that point, because the way things are going, I could wind up deciding which party primary to vote in on election day.

Addendum: Well, if anyone was curious about what happens if you call a candidate from South Georgia a 'geezer', the answer is you get pwned. Josh (from the comments) is right about the difference in the primaries. Unfortunately, he better enjoy his triumph here while it lasts. This election isn't for the Democrats to win, it's for Saxby Chambliss to lose.

And in the interests of bi-partisanship, let me point out that Saxby Chambliss is a man of principle. Please note the careful use of the singular there. His guiding principle is that he will be re-elected. And he is a humble man. When Georgia popular opinion about an issue changes, he isn't so proud that he won't rethink his position and change with it.